All dental professionals are required to properly evaluate, diagnose, and educate their patients on their dental health and conditions, so any and all treatment options are understood. Once a treatment plan is elected, these professionals are required to provide treatment within the accepted standard of care. Failing to do so can cause new unnecessary injuries and harm and require a malpractice claim.
Dental malpractice may include any act or omission by a dentist, orthodontist, or oral surgeon during the treatment and care of a patient that deviates from the accepted standards of practice and causes the patient to suffer harm. If you or your loved one have been injured during a botched dental procedure or suffered harm due to the carelessness or negligence of a dentist, you deserve to be duly compensated for the injuries and damages you have suffered. The Law Office of Shane R. Kadlec can provide you with legal help and representation, ensuring that you will be able to hold a negligent dentist responsible for your injuries.
Pursuing Compensation for Dental Malpractice
In a dental malpractice claim, the injured patient must prove that a dentist acted negligently and failed to provide reasonable care, and this negligence resulted in an injury. The following four elements need to be proven in a dental malpractice claim:
- Duty of reasonable care: A patient must prove that the dentist owed him or her a duty of care. This duty arises from a dentist-patient relationship in which the dentist assumes the obligations associated with providing treatment for the patient.
- Violation of the standard of care: The patient must prove that the care rendered by the dentist was substandard and unreasonable. This may also mean that even though the dentist took actions that were appropriate, treatment was performed in a negligent manner.
- Injury to the patient: The patient must have suffered harm in order to give rise to a claim for damages. An injury may include physical harm that required additional dental or medical treatment or physical or emotional pain and suffering that occurred as a result of a dentist’s negligence.
- Link between the negligence and the injury: A negligent act that does not result in an injury is not sufficient to constitute a legal claim. A dentist’s negligence must have directly caused or contributed to the patient’s injuries.
Common Types of Dental Malpractice
Some of the leading causes of injuries in dental malpractice cases include:
- Misdiagnosis: A dentist may examine a patient but fail to diagnose the correct problem, or the patient may be diagnosed with a condition that he or she may not have. A misdiagnosed condition may prevent a patient from receiving necessary treatment, or a patient may receive invasive or harmful treatment that was not needed.
- Failing to obtain a complete medical history: If a dentist does not obtain and study a patient’s medical history before performing a procedure, they may fail to address certain issues that affect the patient, such as allergies to medications or heart conditions that may be affected by a dental procedure. This may result in dangerous complications that could affect a patient’s overall health.
- Failure to treat: A dentist may arrive at the right diagnosis but fail to prescribe or perform the correct treatment. A dentist may fail to inform the patient of a problem, fail to offer the proper follow-up care, or neglect to refer a patient to a specialist.
- Dental and surgical errors: A dentist may perform an incorrect dental procedure, perform surgery or other invasive procedures that are unnecessary, administer incorrect amounts of anesthesia, cause infections through the use of non-sterile dental instruments, or cause preventable damage to a patient’s teeth, nerves, or jaw-bone during treatment.
- Dental product liability: In some instances, patients may suffer injuries because tools or devices used during dental treatment were faulty or of substandard quality.
